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ESS Begins Work with Cornell on Federally-Funded Offshore Noise Research Project

July 29, 2011 – Georgia Coast – The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program, in collaboration with ESS Group, Inc. and Marine Acoustics Inc., was recently granted a research award by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) to gain greater insight into ocean renewable energy development. The grant awarded nearly $5 million to eight competitively-selected, peer-reviewed research plans and is a combined effort with the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce’s National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.

The objective of the three year research plan is to measure, characterize, and evaluate the possible influences of construction and operation noise from offshore renewable energy projects on the habitat of marine organisms in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Many species in the OCS rely on acoustic communications for such imperative functions as feeding, mating, and long distance communication, and there are concerns about what the anthropogenic impact of large offshore energy-capture installations may be on the marine environment.

“The information gathered through this study will help identify and address some of the information gaps limiting the development of offshore alternative energy,” said ESS Senior Vice President Chris Rein. “ESS is excited about the opportunity to help streamline the responsible deployment of renewable energy technologies in our oceans.”

ESS has begun work on its phase of the project, which includes conducting habitat assessments to estimate the behavior, type, and number of species potentially impacted by noise producing activities at two proposed offshore renewable energy project sites prior to, during, and after construction. This information, combined with acoustic recordings and analyses technologies, will allow the project team to assess the impact of offshore alternative energy on the ecology and behavior of the ocean environment. The team will use these findings to comprise a list of recommendations to the three federal agencies to develop environmental protocols and monitoring that will support ocean renewable energy while preserving and protecting the ecology of the surrounding environment.

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